Frederick Dukes (Earth-616)
Fatso, Tubby, Big Man, Brainless Lummox, Horseman of Bounty | Identity = Public | Affiliation = Formerly , , , , , , , ; frequent partner of Unus the Untouchable | Relatives = Blob (clone, deceased) | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Krakoa, Pacific Ocean; formerly Mutant Town; Freedom Force HQ, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia; Department X Headquarters, New York, Age of X-Man | Gender = Male | Height = 5'10" | Height2 = (currently); formerly (after further mutation) 8'Category:Height 8' | Weight = 510 lbs | Weight2 = (currently); formerly (after depowerment) 275 lbs ; (after further mutation) 976 lbs. | Eyes = Brown | Hair = Brown | UnusualFeatures = Abnormally obese; formerly excedent skin (depowered form) | CharRef = | Citizenship = American, Krakoan | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Former Professional criminal, terrorist, circus performer, federal government special operative | Education = | Origin = Mutant | PlaceOfBirth = Lubbock, Texas | Creators = Stan Lee; Jack Kirby | First = X-Men Vol 1 3 | Quotation = Eventually, I was offered a couple of choices - kinda like a 'Heads, you're good, tails you're bad' deal. I chose tails. | Speaker = Blob | QuoteSource = Generation M Vol 1 3 | HistoryText = Early Life Fred Dukes, alias the "Blob" is a mutant whose latent superhuman powers manifested themselves when he reached puberty. His major weaknesses were his short temper, lack of foresight, his lack of intelligence, and his easily-manipulated self-esteem. Thinking of himself as no more than, in his own words, "an extra-strong freak," the Blob used his superhuman mutant powers as a performer in a carnival. Meeting the X-Men The original X-Men came to the carnival in their everyday identities to invite him to meet with their mentor, Professor Charles Xavier. Attracted to the beautiful young X-Man Jean Grey, the Blob accepted, and went with the X-Men to Xavier's Mansion. There, Xavier asked the Blob to join the X-Men, but the Blob arrogantly refused. Xavier then knew he had to use his mental powers to erase the Blob's knowledge of the X-Men's true identities. But the Blob had no intention of letting this happen, and, after fighting the X-Men, escaped back to the carnival. The Blob had learned through meeting Xavier that he himself was a superhumanly powerful mutant. Believing himself to be superior to normal people, the Blob took over the carnival. Knowing that the X-Men considered him dangerous because he knew who they really were, the Blob decided to strike out at them first. He led the other members of the carnival on an attack on Xavier's mansion. The Blob hoped to steal whatever scientific discoveries and special weapons that the X-Men might possess and use them against ordinary humans. However, the X-Men defeated the Blob and his allies, and Xavier wiped out their memories of the X-Men. Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Later, Magneto attempted to recruit the Blob for his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. A severe blow to the head restored the Blob's memory of the X-Men, and he joined Magneto's Brotherhood in an attack on them. In the midst of battle, Magneto launched a powerful torpedo at the X-Men, not caring that the Blob was in the way. Torpedoes struck the Blob but did not seriously injure him. The Brotherhood escaped, and the Blob, feeling betrayed, swore never to trust anyone again and returned to his job with the carnival. Months later, under the behind-the-scenes influence of the alien Lucifer, the Blob met another superhumanly powerful mutant, Unus the Untouchable, and the two of them attempted to frame their mutual enemies, the X-Men, as bank robbers. This was the start of the Blob's long and close friendship with Unus, which ended only with Unus's apparent death several years later. The two mutants next joined Factor Three, an organization of mutants that attempted world conquest. Blob and Unus became members of a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants along with Mastermind. This Brotherhood was later claimed by Magneto as he prepared to create Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant. Alpha turned against the Brotherhood, however, turning Blob and the others into infants. Months later, the Shi'ar agent Eric the Red restored Magneto to normal on Muir Island. The radiation he used leaked through and affected Blob and the others as well. They briefly continued operating as the Brotherhood before splitting up. Eventually, the Blob was recruited by Mystique for her new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Although the Blob continued to operate independently of Mystique's organization since then, he remained a member of the group. Mystique soon became aware of the United States government's increasing anti-mutant activity, and offered the Brotherhood's services to the government, renaming the group "Freedom Force." The Blob participated in Freedom Force's first official mission for the government: the capture of Magneto, his former leader in the original Brotherhood. As a member of Freedom Force, the Blob was involved in missions that continued to bring him into conflict with superhuman crime fighters, most notably the X-Men, X-Factor, and the Avengers. The Blob enjoyed the fact that he could continue indulging his violent tendencies and fighting his old foes while drawing a government paycheck. However, after a disastrous mission to the Middle East, the government disbanded Freedom Force, and the Blob was once again a free agent. The Blob soon joined yet another version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, headed up by his old teammate from the original Brotherhood, the Toad. This team was defeated by the outlaw mutant strike team called X-Force. The Blob allied himself with another mutant, the Mimic, and battled members of X-Force under the orders of an as yet unknown benefactor. Later, Blob was apparently recruited by Onslaught, who taught him the mass-controlling, quasi-shapeshifting aspects of his powers. Blob later got some help in controlling those powers from Sledge, for which Blob owed him some favors. Months afterward, Blob was among the mutants comprising the second incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants, who were on a mission to find Professor X so that he could protect them from the rampages of the sentient Cerebro. Finally, Blob was re-recruited into the Brotherhood by Mystique to take down X-51, the Machine Man. Later, he was involved in the group's failed attempt to kill Senator Kelly. Following that mission, Blob was incarcerated but was sprung months later by Multiple Man, who brought him into Banshee's X-Corps. Blob resisted Banshee at first, but a well-placed sonic scream put him in his place. Thanks to Mastermind's telepathy, his villainous impulses were controlled, and he functioned as the group's strong man until Mystique released Mastermind. Blob then attacked his "heroic" teammates and was finally put down by Stacy X's pheromone control. It is unknown whether he was arrested or detained, but months later, after he was "left out" of a Brotherhood attack on the X-Men, he appeared in a therapy session with a Dr. Garrison, who advised him to be true to himself. Garrison, himself a mutant with pheromone powers, apparently induced Blob to attack the X-Mansion. Needless to say, Blob was defeated, mostly by the students, who managed to put him to sleep with telepathy and pheromones. M-Day While at the Starlite-Casino in Atlantic City, the Blob was one of the thousands of mutants to lose their powers due to the Scarlet Witch's spell. His skin did not shrink to compensate the loss of his bloated mass, however, giving him huge folds of loose skin all over his body and causing him to become suicidal. Back in New York, he came to meet, in a back-alley, Sally Floyd who was working on the Ex-Mutant Diaries. Unwilling to be interviewed himself, he gave her the tip to investigate the Ravencroft Institute. Eventually coming to blame the government for M-Day, he joined other former mutants in the terrorist X-Cell. After mistakenly getting into a fight with Rictor and Multiple Man and getting in a cheap shot on Rictor, he stole a car. With fellow X-Cell member, Fatale, he attempted to flee, eventually hitting an open manhole (left open earlier in the day by Strong Guy and Wolfsbane) and causing the car to crash. After getting rid of his excess skin folds somehow and reinventing himself as reality TV star Freddie Dukes, he was later seen with Magneto as he went to the High Evolutionary about regaining his powers. Madripoor With his powers seemingly restored by the MGH produced from Dazzler, he joined Mystique in her attempts to turn Madripoor into a mutant sanctuary. After hearing that Magneto was also on the island, Blob welcomed him and brought him to meet Mystique. To Blob's shock, however, Magneto reacted violently to the plan, believing that Mystique and the others were traitors to their species, in part due to allowing the use of Mutant Growth Hormone to run rampant in the streets to fund their operations. He heavily injured Blob and the Brotherhood, and left after making their base collapse. Later Blob was shown checking out the condition of the comatose Dazzler, as he needed more MGH to boost his failing powers, when he was interrupted by Mystique and Sabretooth. Mothervine When Miss Sinister started experimenting with a power-bestowing virus known as Mothervine, she abducted Blob and tested it on him. Fred's unconscious body was left behind by Miss Sinister in her laboratory so that the X-Men would find it when they investigated her activities. The Blob woke up shortly after Angel and Jimmy Hudson broke into the laboratory, and he attacked them. During the fight he manifested a secondary mutation caused by Mothervine, the ability to stretch his body. However, it quickly went out of control and he painfully melted into a literal blob that went down a drain. Blob's body was reconstituted, and he appeared alongside many other mutants with secondary powers at the service of Miss Sinister. He helped carry out an attack against Magneto's X-Men to stop them from interfering with Miss Sinister's plans to release Mothervine on a global scale with the help of an alliance she had formed with Havok, Emma Frost and Bastion. In the end, Miss Sinister's mutants were defeated by the X-Men and restrained. Age of X-Man In the reality created by Nate Grey and a Life Seed, a world where everyone on Earth was a mutant and relationships were strongly discouraged or illegal, Blob was the leader of Department X, the police force in charge of investigating and arresting dissident mutants. Counter to his mainstream personality, this reality's version of Dukes was a kind and caring soul, invested in the well being of his team and mutants on the whole. He also was an excellent baker. One day Department X was tasked with capturing recurrent love criminals Luke and Nezumi Sen. After a brief skirmish in the couple's home and their subsequent capture, Nezumi revealed to Blob while being loaded into the police van that she was pregnant, the first pregnancy that the group had encountered in their careers. Flummoxed by her revelation, Blob consulted with his teammates for confirmation of the pregnancy and what to do with their pregnant charge. The group reacted with a mix of disbelief and disgust. Eventually the group opted to unfreeze Nezumi upon their return to headquarters and decided what to do with her there. On a following day, Blob led Department X in a controlled burn of a nearby woodland, in order to give the X-Men a catastrophe to manage. Later that night while working alone together, Psylocke confronted Blob with her knowledge of his feelings toward her, offering to erase them for him and even implant mild feelings of disgust toward her. Startled by her revelation, Blob dashed out of headquarters and called out of work "with strep" for three days. On day three Psylocke discovered a note from Blob asking for her forgiveness and his desire to keep his memories. That night Psylocke confronted Blob at his home over his tardiness and feelings toward her. He confessed his feelings for her, that he would never impose them upon her, and that he clung to said feelings as an anchor to get him through the day. In the end Psylocke let him keep his memories. The following day at the office Blob and Psylocke continued as if nothing had happened. Detaining another criminal mutant, Psylocke wiped the memories concerning his feelings. Moneta soon accused Betsy however of only pretending to wipe the prisoner's memories. Blob quickly came to Psylocke's defense, chastizing Moneta for her accusations and pulling rank to quell her disobedience. After sending Moneta home, Jubilee revealed to Blob the inhumane treatment of their prisoner Nezumi at Moneta's hands and the continuing uncertainty of how to deal with Nezumi's pregnancy. That night, following the stress of the day, Psylocke and Blob shared a relaxing evening together reading and commiserating over their feelings for one another. Days later, Department X investigated a tip of a dissident teenage party at a ramshackle former library. The team soon discovered a group of teenagers, who Moneta insisted were in fact part of a "dangerous retrograde cult". Although the teenagers initially opted to flee, some members of their group rallied their cohorts to fight Department X, inspired by revolutionary Murshid En Sabah Nur. The trained officers quickly and reluctantly defeated the riled teens. Upon inquiry Moneta revealed that she had set up the encounter to prove the existence of resistance. Furious at her deception, Blob fired her from the department. While cleaning up the mess from the fight, Blob and Psylocke shared an intimate moment. Unbeknownst to the pair, teammate Northstar picked up on the intimacy between the two and was deeply bothered by this revelation. After a series of events, the Department X team began to regain some of their memories from the mainstream reality. Furious, Jubilee used her powers to burn down Blob's house, after observing him and Psylocke cuddling on a loveseat. Standing outside the blaze, Psylocke revealed to Blob that Moneta was right and she hadn't actually taken away the memories from any of their past arrests, merely kept the memories within her mind. With Blob's support, she released the thousand of trapped memories inside her, causing her to faint. When a group of angry victims threatened to attack the duo, Blob scoffed at their audacity and reminded them that he was "*expletive* indestructible". Sometime later Blob was seen sitting across from the burned out and graffitied Department X headquarters. After Nate Grey returned all of the mutants to their mainstream identities, Blob and Psylocke were seen standing in front of one of the portals back to their home universe. Krakoa Blob was of the many mutants that joined the mutant nation of Krakoa upon its creation. He was seen alongside many other Krakoans looking on at Charles Xavier's corpse after his death at the hands of anti-mutant superhuman criminals who had infiltrated Krakoa's defenses and killed many of its residents, including Xavier. | Powers = The Blob's mutant powers relate to the mass, strength, resilience, and indestructibility of his obese body. Superhuman Durability and Strength: The Blob's body possesses a high degree of resistance to injury. The fat tissues that comprise the Blob's epidermis are able to absorb the impact of rifle bullets, cannonballs, bazooka, and even torpedoes. The fat tissue of his epidermis is resilient enough to revert to its normal shape within seconds after deformation caused by impact. It is virtually impervious to physical injury. The Blob's skin cannot be punctured or lacerated by most known materials, frostbitten, or ravaged by any skin disease, due in part to the skin's great elasticity and toughness and in part to the highly accelerated rate at which his skin cells grow and replace themselves. It is not yet known if there is an upper limit to the Blob's ability to absorb impact. He could easily survive a head-on collision with a bus traveling at a hundred miles per hour, even a highly ferrous meteorite fifty feet in diameter on top of him at terminal velocity. *''Pain Immunity:'' The Blob's nerve endings do not relay any tactile perception to his brain, which is near the threshold of pain, which makes it so that he is unable to feel pain. *''Trapping:'' Blob is able to capture anything that attacks him within his flesh, including limbs and projectiles. He is able to control how long he holds the object and releasing it with or without the recoil pressure. However, it takes the Blob’s full concentration on trapping an object or individual, and if he were to focus on something else or get distracted by an attack from another person, he would lose control of his muscles and release who or whatever he was holding with his body. *''Projectile Redirection:'' After Blob's body absorbs the kinetic energy of a projectile's impact, he can expel the object back. Fired projectiles would be embedded within the Blob’s body and, by flexing the muscles where the projectile hits, he can cause the projectile to recoil with half the force of impact, reflecting it back at half speed. The Blob can also recoil a punch thrown at him and throw the opponent back a good distance. *''Mass Shifting:'' Through training with Onslaught and Sledge, Blob is able to manipulate his mass to mimic shape-shifting, using it to enhance the size and extension of his limbs. He can make his fists the size of a human. Secondary Mutation: After undergoing the Mothervine enhancement process, Blob developed a secondary mutation: * Stretching: Blob possesses the ability to stretch his limbs to an undetermined extent. When he first manifested this ability, he quickly lost control and liquified into a puddle. }} | Abilities = The Blob is a formidable hand to hand combatant. Although he possesses no formal training, his great size coupled with his strength and resistance to injury render him a highly efficient and effective street fighter. While not superhuman, the Blob has higher speed, agility, and stamina than his size would indicate, which he often uses to surprise his opponents. | Strength = The Blob possesses the strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in no regular exercise. Before M-Day, he was superhumanly strong and is capable of lifting 5 tons. | Weaknesses = *Projected energy attacks, like Scott Summers' optic blasts, have been seen to penetrate his skin. *The Blob's eyes and the interior of his ears, mouth, and nose are also vulnerable to injury. *The Blob is vulnerable to a concussion, such as during his run-in with Daredevil during his days in Freedom Force. Daredevil had the girl Amanda, whom Blob and Pyro were ordered to capture, use her telekinetic powers to drop a large bell on Blob, which knocked Blob out after Daredevil lured him to the Bell Tower. *The Blob has a higher alcohol tolerance than a normal human due to his size, though he can still be intoxicated if he ingests huge amounts of alcohol. *Blob relies on Mutant Growth Hormone to maintain his powers. | Equipment = | Transportation = Formerly Freedom Force Helicopter. | Weapons = | Notes = *The Blob has attempted to choke Hellcat to death. He was eventually knocked out by her psionic powers. He was one of the few among the villainous Defenders who actually attempted to kill an opponent, instead of merely knocking them out. He told Hellcat to kiss all nine of her lives goodbye. *According to Blob's self-description, he is just "a big, fun-lovin' kid". *Blob was the first known villain to visit Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and to train in the Danger Room. *Professor X claims that the molecules in Blob's body are responding to Blob's mental commands. *While Blob was not particularly friendly with the X-Men, he did not lift a finger against them until Professor X announced his plans to erase Blob's memory. This immediately turned the Blob against the team. *While Blob was aware of his powers before meeting the X-Men, he reportedly did not know that he was a mutant until the X-Men told him. He had no idea about the origin of his powers. *Blob did not enjoy daily display as a freak at the carnival, but he considered it a better fate than being unemployed and starving. | Trivia = *Hellcat has commented that the Blob has "bad breath". She could not stand smelling it. {r|Defenders Vol 1 64}} *When first approached by Cyclops, the Blob suspected that the younger man was there to request money from him. *The Blob had heard of the X-Men before meeting them, and described them as "jerky juveniles" with "corny costumes". *Blob distrusted Cyclops moments after meeting him, because of the manner in which Cyclops talked to him. Cyclops introduced himself by claiming that he was ordered to bring the Blob to the headquarters of the X-Men, and that the X-Men do not take "no" for an answer. Blob took this as a threat, and answered by threatening to throw Cyclops out of his living quarters. *In his original appearance, Blob was smoking one cigar after another, like a chain-smoker. *The admission price to see Blop performing at the carnival was 25 cents. | Links = * }} Category:Pain Suppression Category:Depowered Mutants Category:Rems Category:M-Day Depowered Category:MGH Users Category:Gravitikinesis Category:Stretching Category:Secondary Mutations Category:Shapeshifters Category:Superhuman Strength Category:Tobacco Smokers Category:Circus Performers Category:Age of X-Man participants Category:Repowered Mutants Category:Strength Class 5